The Dream Stars

1: Workshop Jitters

 "Oh my god." Colette looked beside her to the mini fridge, then propped herself up to take in the rest of the room. It was as ordinary as any, but very spacious. It had its own living space with couches, a kitchen and dining table, with a desk and bed at the other side. "Go check out the bathroom." She pointed, being too lazy and comfortable to do it herself.

Talia got up and did just that, gasping loudly when she switched on the light.

"Double sinks, huge mirrors, no gross tub!" She called.

"Nice," Colette whipped out her phone from her pocket to update her social media, which she rarely ever did, but this was a significant moment. Talia joined her on the bed to scroll through her feed. "Okay, so the workshop is until three, we have two hours till then. Our first rehearsal is at five, but we should be there earlier just to make a good impression, you know?" Colette shivered at the word 'rehearsal' as she said it. She hoped it was a closed rehearsal just between her, Talia and the dance duo Girl Crew; not that it would help with the fact that they were rehearsing for an actual show in front of tons of people later on in the week. The sudden realization of how close she was to the possibility of public humiliation made Colette almost break out in hives. She loved dancing, loved singing, but how the hell was she actually going to go out there and do those things publicly?

Talia, of course, noticed her best friend's nerves. "Hey, it'll be alright. We dance all the time, Colette, there's no difference, except now we'll be surrounded by people who are probably not as good as us."

Colette smiled at her friend's encouraging words. Coming here had been all Colette's idea, anyway. When she saw a post about the dance convention on her feed, she knew getting tickets would be the perfect gift for Talia's birthday. Then to make it all better, a mutual of theirs named Ava had told them of one of the groups needing extra back up dancers, and again Colette knew she had to sign up. She was here to be with her best friend, both doing what they loved to do, by themselves in a hotel in San Diego- Why couldn't she just focus on the coolness of their situation?

"Want to go get food at the mall next door? I'm starting to feel hungry." Talia knew exactly what to say to cheer her friend up. Colette's ears practically perked at the mention of food.

"Do you think they have Panda?"

"Let's go find out!" Talia popped up out of bed and checked herself in the bathroom mirror quickly before heading toward the door. They took the grand staircase down to the lobby now that they didn't have their luggage and naturally ignored everything and everyone around them. Their mission was the outdoor mall just a couple steps away from the entrance of the hotel, and no one was interesting enough to get in their way. Talia strode with confidence that dusted off of her like sparkly flakes as she walked, while Colette matched her pace, determined but head-down, not being in the line of fire for the confident flakes to ever take effect.

"It says that the food court is on the second level." Talia pointed out while looking at a directory sign. The girls ran up the stairs to an array of restaurants. To Colette's luck, there indeed was a Panda Chinese restaurant. They both walked in and walked out with their usuals to sit at a nearby table.

"So..." Colette took a deep breath and continued to voice her anxieties, "Are you sure you aren't the least bit worried about this?"

"About what?"

"About what Girl Crew will think of us?"

"Colette, you need to chill out. They've seen, what, five different videos of us dancing? And we've watched them perform several times, it shouldn't be that hard to follow along."